A war of the Kings for supremacy was finally over. Rudra, despite being weaker in terms of levels and attributes, still came out on top. Living up to the name of the Godbeast Basilisk.
Kahn looked at the gigantic figure that was still coiling around the corpse of the magma drake that was now cooling down little by little. Kahn was now recovering and had enough strength to get up and walk thanks to the high-grade health & stamina recovery potion.
He picked up his sword and started using it like a walking stick as he slowly walked towards the battlefield. His bleeding wounds were slowly getting closed since the aftermath of Berserk God Mode was over and now he had 30% of his strength and health regeneration abilities, albeit working at a slow pace.
"So you've finally decided to show up, your Majesty." said Kahn sarcastically.
"It's because you're still too weak, human. You couldn't even kill this inferior beast while I defeated it despite being far weaker than it." replied Rudra as he looked at Kahn with condescending eyes.
"Since when have you been able to speak?" asked Kahn out of curiosity.
"The mighty me have developed speech after watching you converse with so many creatures. I can see everything from the inside." replied the basilisk.
"Then why didn't you come out before when I asked you to?" asked Kahn as he glared at the serpent.
"I wanted to see how you'd fare against this lizard. But to think that you'd lose so miserably.. Well, I didn't have any big expectations anyway." spoke Rudra as he started unwinding himself from the body of the now-dead dungeon boss.
"Then why didn't you come out when the Lich nearly killed me?" asked Kahn.
"Its dark magic had greatly restricted me and also, the cave was too small for me to appear." replied Rudra.
"If you had come before, everyone else would be still alive!" raged Kahn at the basilisk. Because he indeed had asked Rudra to come out but the basilisk was somehow able to maintain staying inside his shadow despite Kahn's orders.
He was like a tenant who won't get out of the house even after the landlord banging on the door too many times.
"And how is that my problem? Their lives have no importance to me." rebuked Rudra. If not for its life being bound to Kahn, it wouldn't have shown up even now.
Rudra was a subordinate made up of 50% Basilisk bloodline and was at Mythical rank. Even under the restrictions placed by the Synthesis divine ability, the difference in species & rank made it unwilling to submit to Kahn.. Mainly because the Kahn back then & even now was still far weaker than it.
Kahn threw his hands in the air, there was no point in quarreling with this rogue and oddball subordinate. He'd need to reach a level far above it and beat the shit out of this basilisk one day to make him submit.
"System, is there any way I can get them back?" asked Kahn just for the sake of it. His losses were simply too big in this hunt. And he was only alive because of this giant basilisk, his biggest trump card showing up in the last moment. Otherwise, he'd be squashed in the molten ground by the dungeon boss.
One thing Kahn understood very seriously that your Rank and Species really had too much importance to them. Rudra managed to kill the drake and made up for their difference in strength solely because of that. If he was the same level as the dungeon boss, the drake would've died miserably in the beginning because Rudra would be far stronger and have an immense difference in attributes and strength.
Even though Kahn didn't like relying on anyone else, even his subordinates; he still had to be thankful to this moody teenager of a snake.
[Yes. The System holds all the data regarding the species, bloodlines and even the consciousness of the subordinates created by the host. So as long as the host is alive, the subordinates can be revived. But the host will have to provide monster cores and mana ores for the reconstruction of their bodies from scratch.] replied the system as it explained the procedure.
Kahn let out a sigh of relief and asked again.
"How much?"
[Given the current amount of resources, the host can only resurrect 4 subordinates after using all the A Rank & B rank cores. Low-grade resources are unsuitable for this procedure.] replied the system.
"I see. Resurrect Omega, Ronin, Ceril & Blackwall for now. Take all the resources you need." ordered Kahn.
[Resurrection procedure initiated. The subordinates will be revived with a newly constructed body with the same skills, bloodlines and memories in 12 days.] informed the system in its usual lifeless robotic voice.
Kahn currently had 60 A rank & 1200 B rank cores on him.
Kahn found this procedure reasonable because no way could a dead entity could be resurrected this quickly after being reconstructed from the scratch.
"If you don't mind.." said Kahn and walked towards the corpse of the magma drake.
"MINE!! Its body is mine to eat!!" shouted Rudra and glared at Kahn.
"What? Thought you didn't like eating weaklings." responded Kahn in surprise.
"Although this beast is weaker in front of me.. I sense an archaic bloodline from it. Even though it's in very small amount, it can still be beneficial for me." declared Rudra.
"Huh.. Aren't you a Basilisk? Isn't this guy supposed to be your enemy?" asked Kahn with a baffled expression.
"I am. But you're forgetting that I'm what you call a Variant. I can absorb its bloodline and acquire its traits and powers for myself." said Rudra.
"Holy fuck!!"
A sudden realization struck Kahn. If what Rudra said was possible.. Wouldn't that mean that Rudra would be able to absorb both Basilisk & Draconic bloodline in the future? And have powers of both the species?
He'd be an anomaly that had never existed.. An entity that shouldn't even be possible to exist. Because normally, two noble bloodlines would repel & counteract each other.
But in the case of Rudra who was created using Kahn's Synthesis divine ability.. It was possible as it had no restrictions on any bloodlines in the first place.
"So you mean you can become an amalgamation of both Basilisk & Dragon? You gotta be shitting me!!" yelled Kahn in disbelief.
In response, Rudra only gave a cunning smile to Kahn.
"I will transcend beyond these Basilisks and Dragons you speak of. I will trample upon them.. I shall sit atop of all the creations in this world! I will dominate this entire world!" declared Rudra.
"Yeah, yeah whatever. Just let me absorb its skills and bloodline and you can have the body and the core, okay?" said Kahn and put his hands on the now cooled-off body.
Kahn hadn't used the Mana Bombs on this magma drake because he figured out that they wouldn't have damaged the dungeon boss up by much. After all, the heat only compliments heat. His dark magic was far more useful compared to those bombs.
And now that most of the body had cooled off after the boss died, he could finally put his hands on it. And since Kahn didn't have any sacrificial pawns, he couldn't even create a new subordinate out of it.
He put his hands on the body and gave the command.
"Absorb!"
For the next half an hour, Kahn spent his time absorbing the skills and bloodline. And when he was finally done, the system notified him about the new skills abilities.
[Congratulations to the host for acquiring the Draconic Bloodline!
Current Bloodline purity : 5%
The host has acquired the following abilities & skills :
Thermal Body (S Rank) (Grandmaster Rank) (PASSIVE) :
Allows the host to maintain body temperature and immunity to heat up to 2000 degrees celcius.
Drake Scales (ACTIVE) :
Creates a sturdy & protective layer of Magma Drake's scales around the entire body of the host.
Drake Claws (ACTIVE) :
The host can now use the sharp and unbreakable claws of the magma drake with extreme heat and destructive power.
Note : The exclusive bloodline abilities of the drake are unsuitable to be merged with other skills & abilities the host is currently in possession of. The host is advised to obtain more Draconic bloodline for Synthesis.] the system gave the report card.
"Holy shit!" exclaimed Kahn in joy.
This was indeed a worthy reward. And as soon he gained the Thermal Body, Kahn's body no longer felt the jarring heat that came from the surrounding. To him, he felt like sitting in front of an AC instead.
The Drake Scales and Drake Claws would definitely be a worthwhile ability in many circumstances for sure.
After he was done, Rudra started tearing the body of the drake with his giant fangs and ingested the torn body parts one by one.
Kahn who was already content with the results had no intentions to watch the butchering procedure
Just then, Kahn suddenly remembered something that the Dungeon Boss had spoken to him.
He took a look around the battlefield and tried to sense the surroundings.. But since all his abilities were restricted for the next 24 Hrs.. His reach wasn't that far.
"Now where is it?" asked Kahn and finally he noticed a small bright light that was coming out of a small peak on the other end of this floor. It was the exact place where the dungeon boss first came out of.
A greedy expression appeared on his face. Because he would still get some consolation despite loosing the fight. Because what Kahn was looking for was the most precious thing in this entire dungeon...
The Dungeon Core!